


struggling to exist with you (and without you)

by falloutmars



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: 2x21, Accidental Confession, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hospitals, Light Angst, lowkey mutual pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 04:35:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20754431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falloutmars/pseuds/falloutmars
Summary: Person A being super tired and as Person B is helping them to bed Person A says "You know I have a crush on you, right?"-Set after 2×21 but they were just friends the whole time.





	struggling to exist with you (and without you)

**Author's Note:**

> title from bishops knife trick by fall out boy

Jughead wakes up confused and not in his dingy trailer bedroom. All he can hear is the rhythmic beeping of what sounds suspiciously like a heart monitor.

He blinks several times in an attempt to clear his eyes of sleep. He looks around the room. He's in the hospital. Right. The Ghoulies. Penny. The knife. He remembers now.

To his left in a too small chair, Betty is sleeping.  _ She looks so small and innocent _ , he thinks.  _ She looks so cute. _

Stupidly, he attempts to turn over.

"Fuck!" he groans loudly. Betty's eyes flicker open and he instantly feels guilty for waking her.

“Juggie?” she asks him sleepily. He can only groan in response.

He watches as she sits up and rubs the sleep away from her eyes. His heart hurts when he sees how sad she looks. He did this to her; he is the cause of her pain. He doesn't know if he'll ever forgive himself for this, even though he did it to protect her. At least, that’s what he tells himself.

She gets up and moves towards him, taking his hand in hers. Jughead is so sleepy and in pain that his brain doesn't fully process it. 

“Jug?” she asks, sounding almost fully awake now. “Can I get you anything?”

Barely able to keep his eyes open, he tries to look up at her. He feels like crying but he wants to stay strong for her. Carefully, he shakes his head no.

“Do you want your dad? I'm not sure where he went though, I must've fallen asleep. I'm sorry, Juggie.” She sounds upset, almost guilty. “Maybe I should go...”

“No, don't go,” he manages to croak.

She smiles slightly at that. “Okay, let's get you comfortable so you can sleep some more.”

At that, he gives her a warm smile. Unable to control himself, he brings his hand up to her face to cup her cheek. The skin on skin contact grounds him. He silently thinks to himself that it’s actually her that grounds him, but he’d never admit it out loud.

Betty gives him a sweet smile and Jughead finds himself falling even harder for her.

In his sleepy state, his filter disappears. The drugs he’s been given aren’t helping either.

“Betty?” he mumbles. She looks up at him with those gorgeous green eyes. Jughead can’t think straight and he knows it isn’t because of the drugs.

“Are you okay?” she asks, worry spreading across her face.

Without thinking, Jughead says “You know I have a crush on you, right?” He could barely bring himself to care as his thumb gently rubs her cheek. “Actually, I think I might be a little bit in love with you, Betty.”

Almost immediately he could see Betty’s eyes fill with tears. He quickly tries to snatch his hand away from her face and think of an excuse for what slipped out, but his brain winds up blank. 

In a way, he feels relieved. He’s been in love with her for a long, long time and now she knows. This wasn’t the way he planned on telling her, but he couldn’t take it back.  _ Now to face the consequences _ , he thinks.

“Jug...”

_ Fuck _ . He can’t do this right now. He can’t face the consequences after all. He just can’t deal with heartbreak on top of all his injuries. 

Jughead decides to bring this conversation to a halt before it even begins.

“Look, Betty, I’m sorry for what I said. I’m not gonna tell you that I didn’t mean it, but honestly, I’m exhausted right now and everything hurts and I just want to sleep.” He gives her a small, pained smiled. “But just so you know, I really appreciate you being here still. Thank you, Betts.” 

He closes his eyes so he doesn’t have to watch her reaction, willing sleep to take him once again.

Just as he’s drifting back off to sleep, he feels her press a gentle kiss to his forehead. 

“Sleep well, Juggie. I’m not going anywhere. Not now, or ever,” she whispers. He thinks she doesn’t realise that he’s still awake. 

— 

The following morning, Jughead once again wakes up in pain. He’s less disoriented this time and feels slightly less like he’s been hit by a bus. But still decidedly not great. 

He glances around the room to see if anyone is around when he sees Betty sat in the chair she previously slept in. She’s staring at him intensely. 

For a moment, he isn’t sure why. But then he remembers. In his pain and drug induced state, he confessed his long-standing feelings to Betty. And proceeding to sleep before letting her respond.

_ How could I be so careless? She’s my best friend! How can we ever come back from this?  _ Jughead thinks, now angry at himself.

A small, familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. “Good morning, Jug. How are you feeling today? You had quite the night of it.” 

“You’re still here,” he replies, completely ignoring her question.

“Of course I am.”

He sits up as best he can, wincing slightly as he does. 

She places a comforting hand atop his as she speaks. “I- uh, I think we should talk about what happened, Jug.”

She pauses for a few seconds. He panics at the silence, but can’t bring himself to say anything. Just as she opens her mouth to start talking again, a nurse walks in for a routine check up, giving him a few more moments to panic.

After the nurse leaves, Betty doesn’t try to talk again. Jughead realises that he’s going to have to say something first this time.

He takes a deep breath. “Betty, I want you to know that you are my best friend and you will always be my best friend before anything else. Regardless of anything else, I can’t lose you as my best friend. Don’t forget that, please.”

She’s staring at him again. All he can think about is how beautiful she is, and how much he wants to kiss her. 

She interrupts his thoughts once again. This time, though, she’s moving to carefully press her lips against his. She’s so gentle, so careful not to hurt him and Jughead feels like he’s dreaming. Or hallucinating.  _ This cannot be real. _ But it is; it is real. Betty Cooper is kissing him. 

“I think I might be a little bit in love with you too, Jug,” she whispers, before leaning in to kiss him once more.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
